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where to buy downloadable music nowadays?

...when you don't like iTunes nor Amazon - too much tie-in on both. I just want a shop where I can download MP3 files for a record, without installing additional software, Firefox plugins, and all that shit.

I've been buying indie stuff via Bandcamp or directly from the label's web site, when available - but that's somewhat tedious, and doesn't work at all for major label stuff.

Google play is good on a phone, the pc software is a little annoying is my only peeve, it's only a little download manager though, nothing like itunes. Selection for what I'm into isn't perfect but it's about as good as other services, much better than Spotify at least too.

"But the vast majority of this forum is European and/or highly urbanized and quite liberal in their firearms views. Take this discussion to ih8mud.com (Toyota Land Cruiser forum) or even knifeforums.com and you'd see the opposite."
-OrangeAfroMan

Best option now, by far, is Bandcamp, since you're buying directly from the artists/label and there is an excellent choice of file formats, and you can re-download all your files.

Other ones I use (may not be relevant depending on what music you're after):
Boomkat
Junodownload

Originally Posted by Cosmin

I'd still stick with buying the physical CDs and ripping them to lossless. I think digital music is meh in general, one power outage or HDD misfortune and you're without music.

A lossless download is exactly the same as a lossless CD rip in terms of quality (assuming both redbook cd quality @ 44.1kHz, 16bit). I'm seeing more and more 24-bit lossless downloads available which is better than CD quality unless you're buying blu-ray or SACD

If CDs work better for you then fair enough, but it sounds like the real issue is how you back up digital files.

Bandcamp is a brilliant platform both in terms of user experience as well as for supporting musicians.

I don't often buy digital formats and still buy music on Vinyl. Thank goodness for hipsters making it a popular format again. Shame LP's are going for £18 and upwards now but they nearly always come with a digital download code.

For anything else I just buy the vinyl and use soulseek to get a copy. I can't bear to think of the number of times a HDD has died taking 500gb+ of legitimately owned music. Thankfully it isn't hard to get back again.

I buy through Bandcamp whenever possible, but many labels don't publish there. Didn't do Amazon music downloads ever since they killed the old standalone downloader, but most of my CD purchases are still on Amazon (and then I rip that). It's just slightly more hassle than a good download service that produces files with all the metadata...

Bandcamp is a great example of doing things right. It's the closest thing music has to Steam.

Originally Posted by Lady Spank

Thank goodness for hipsters making it a popular format again.

this is a probably a discussion for a different thread, but ironically the sudden increase in popularity of vinyl is doing a shitload of damage in the long run by squeezing out the independent labels who never abandoned the format.
not that I disapprove of vinyl in any way - I still buy it - but it's just one of those things.

record store day in particular is a big factor but this year in particular i observed a lot more RSD backlash so I guess more people are becoming aware of what's going on